Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Trailways bus rolls down the highway at sixty miles an hour. Dominic touches the switch blade that she stuck inside her bra to make sure that it’s still there. She isn’t hungry, but nervously snacks on a bag of chips. After only snacking on a few of them she closes the bag and sticks it back into her duffle bag. She lays her head back on the seat and closes her eyes when the woman sitting next to her clears her throat. Dominic opens her eyes and looks over at her.
“Are you okay honey?” the petite, red haired Caucasian woman asked.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Dominic replies.
“You’re not hungry, huh?”
“No ma’am not really,” says Dominic.
Looking at the elderly woman, Dominic is reminded of her grandmother Rose, because she was born with a head full of red hair. Dominic lays her head back again and closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep.
The bus makes a turn into another small bus depot and comes to a stop. The bus driver stands up and announces to everyone that he is ahead of schedule, “If you want to get off of the bus and grab something to eat or drink, please feel free to do so at the convenience store that is next to the depot. You have fifteen minutes. Now, if you’re not back on this bus by the time the new passengers have boarded I will leave you here, so remember that you only have fifteen minutes. I have a schedule to keep.”
Dominic decides to get off the bus to grab another bag of chips and something to drink. As soon as she steps off of the bus the night air instantly gives her chill bumps. Dominic rubs both arms up and down while swiftly walking toward the store. As soon as she enters, the first thing she notices is a clothing rack and shoes. She looks down at her old grey sweat suit and old dirty boots. Dominic holds her can of money tight and close to her. She then spins around when she feels someone staring at her and sees one of the men from the bus. He sucks his teeth and smiles at her. Dominic walks over to the clothes rack and grabs a couple pairs of size eight jeans and two pull over hooded sweat shirts. She then walks over to the shoes and looks for her size and grabs a box of all black Nike’s. On her way to the register she grabs a pea coat, some lotion and deodorant. She puts her items down on the counter and the store clerk smiles at her asking if she thinks she has everything. Dominic runs and grabs a bag of Utz potato chips, a Snickers bar and a bottle of Pepsi. The clerk smiles at her again.
“Do you have a bag?”
“Thanks, I almost forgot.” Dominic grabs a black duffle bag and walks back over to the counter. The clerk gives her the amount owed and Dominic opens her can and pulls out two one hundred dollar bills paying for her items.
While waiting for her change she can feel the man from the bus watching her. She stuffs everything in the duffle bag and asks the clerk for the key to the bathroom. Dominic rushes around to the bathroom, goes inside and locks the door. She checks all three stalls and finds them empty. Knowing she doesn’t have much time, she turns on the water in the sink and kicks her old boots off. As soon as she is about to pull her shirt over her head there’s a knock on the bathroom door.
“Shit!” Dominic looks at her watch and sees that she has about eight minutes left. She runs over to the door, unlocks it and turns away to finish changing her clothes when she hears the door shut and lock. She turns to see the man from the bus and shakes her head.
“I been watching you since you got on the bus and I knew there had to be something awfully special inside that can because of the way you keep it close to you.” He walks toward her and she can smell the stench of old alcohol and cigarettes on him.
His smell causes her to cover her nose. He smiles at her with yellow and brown stained teeth from years of smoking and a lack of dental hygiene. She looks at his long greasy pony tail hanging down his back. It looked as if it hadn’t been washed in months, right along with his dirty looking face that was overdue for a good shave.
“I want that can gal,” he says in his deep southern accent.
“Well you’re not getting it and I don’t have time for this.” She looks at her watch again and noticed that she only has six minutes to get back to the bus.
“What did you just say to me?” He walks closer to her.
“Let me rephrase that, hell no!”
He lunges forward to grab her, but before he can Dominic cuts his hand and he grabs it.
“Why you little bitch, I’m going to kill you then I’m going to fuck your corpse and then leave you to become maggot food!” Before he could say anything else Dominic jabs him in the throat with her knife, severing one of his vocal chords.
He grabs his neck as blood squirts out and he drops down to his knees. Dominic walks around him, grabs him by his greasy ponytail and drags him into one of the stalls.
“I told you, I don’t have time for this!” She places him in front of the toilet so that the blood can drip into the bowl and not on the floor.
Grabbing his ponytail again, she pulls his head all the way back. He looks her in the eyes with a pleading stare as she cuts his throat so deep that his head falls all the way over and stays in that position. She grabbed his ponytail one more time, pulling his head back until she hears his neck crack. She locks the stall and crawls under the door then rushed back over to the sink and grabs a handful of paper towels and washes her hands and the blood off her face. She takes paper towels and cleans the blood from the floor and throws the paper towels in the trash can. She pulls the bag out and shoves it into her duffle bag. She quickly changes her clothes and rush from the bathroom pulling on her new coat.
Back inside the store, Dominic doesn’t see anyone at the counter so she drops the key off and runs out the door just as the bus is pulling away. She runs and flags him down before he can get off of the lot. He stops the bus and she jumps on telling him thank you.
“I told you all, fifteen minutes!”
“I know and I’m sorry!”
The bus driver noticed the new coat and is glad that she got one to put on. Dominic slides into her seat, takes a deep breath and puts her head back on the seat while holding her bag tight.
Forty-five minutes later a few seats behind her, Dominic heard one of the men say that someone was missing from the bus.
The guy across from him says, “Thank goodness; that hillbilly reeked of cheap liquor, stale cigarettes and his hair smelled like a commode.” They both laughed and then the bus is quiet again. Dominic lays her head back, close her eyes and drifts off into a deep sleep. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BCT8JGA